


I Saw SAW. I Saw SAW II, Too.

by Coffin Liqueur (HP_Lovecats)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Vignette, ambiguous situation, basically crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23451094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HP_Lovecats/pseuds/Coffin%20Liqueur
Summary: Kokichi Oma: Best or worst person to be trapped in a mysterious escape room with?
Relationships: Oma Kokichi & Saihara Shuichi
Kudos: 12





	I Saw SAW. I Saw SAW II, Too.

Shuichi inspected everything in the darkened laboratory again.

He flew to the cabinets above the sink. Four doors. On the first glowed two sticky notes, neon green under the blacklight. Seven on the second. Three on the third. Five on the fourth. No words on any of them - just symbols: hearts, smileys, hash symbols, music notes, stars. He hadn't narrowed down a potential pattern in any of them yet.

He stooped down to inspect the drawers next, index finger crooked with the first knuckle pressed lightly to his lower lip. The top one was locked - he yanked at the handle a couple of times experimentally; it didn't give, and just as in his first experimentation, it simply rattled and thunked on its bearings. Pulling the second drawer fully-open and scanning it thoroughly, it was empty, as was the third, as was the fourth. Inside the fifth was nothing but a lighter - white, standing upright. For the second time, he opted not to move it in case the position in which it was placed held significance.

Next, he leaned over the counter in the center. An intricately-sculpted wax figure sat on it, depicting the upper half of a screaming man reaching up from a pool which served as the base, as if such base was a portal, holding a set of stainless steel forceps up like a sword to the sky.

Lips and shoulders trembling, he whipped his head up to the classroom clock, squinting to make out the hands in the deep blue-black shadows densest around the ceiling.

9:45 P.M.

Fifteen minutes left -- 

**_PFFFFFZZZSHHH._ **

His body seized at the rip of sound through his ears and he whipped around, hands half-covering them, hastily re-catching the breath of a gasp in shallow gasps...

...And regarded Kokichi, sitting up on one of the desks, his white jacket radiating a luminous fluorescent lavender, holding...

...Shuichi's eyes screwed up faintly; his mouth held open, uncertain if he should ask his question out loud.

Is that a harmonica...?

Kokichi took a great big inhale, mouth a "D"-shape, and he swooped up to the little device in his hands.

_**PFFFFFZZZSHHHHHHHH!** _

...It was, indeed, a harmonica.

The jarring in Shuichi's nerves rang fainter, this time.

"Where did you get that...?"

"Hm?" Kokichi blinked - looked at Shuichi kitten-eyed from across the room. He pouted lightly; Shuichi felt something in his head burn and wither. "You only noticed my sweet musical accompaniment just _now?_ "

_Kokichi..._

A shrug. "I've had it with me ever since we got locked in here! I always keep it on hand..." A snakelike grin. "...just in case I ever get thrown in prison, and need something to do while my cellmate tries relentlessly but to no avail to bust us out before our number's up!"

_Kokichi...!_

...Shuichi's head faintly ached. He winced as he shook it, heel of his palm pressed up just beside his temple.

"I -- please, just... can you tell me where you found it...?"

He was barely able to inflect the question properly; his eyes stayed directed below Kokichi's face, not wanting to look at it.

"If I missed it -- I might have missed other clues where it was hidden..."

"I'm _serious_ , Shuichi...!" Trailing along a theatrical airy gasp. "Don't you know me? Do I _not_ seem like the kind of guy who'd carry around random crap just in case I need to whip it out in some _toooootally unlikely situation...?_ "

_Now_ Shuichi's eyes snapped and locked right on Kokichi's - narrowed and steeled green on oh so innocently round purple.

_Stop it._

Kokichi pouted. His brow furrowed.

He turned his chin up to the ceiling. Drunk in a long, dragging breath in through his nose.

Collapsed it wholesale into a _"geez!"_

Shuichi, too, sighed a little as Kokichi tucked himself into a ball - knees drawing up, head sinking low. Looking back up at the detective from a low angle.

Kicked-puppy hurt that Shuichi certainly didn't buy - but that he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about anymore.

"What's that mean look for? I don't wanna die when the time runs out, either..."

\-- Discordant colors silently flashed across the front of Shuichi's brain, and he flinched - his brow knit and skewed when he processed them; they had never, in fact, been told what would happen if they didn't leave the room by the stroke of 10:00 --

"But if you wanna go assuming that everything I say is a lie -- " Not a single twitch in his face or tell in his voice that he heard his own joke. " -- instead of letting me investigate with you... It's 'cause I'm not a super-smart master detective, huh...?"

Oh, how Shuichi could hear the crocodile tears.

"...Can't you at least let me lighten the mood...?"

Shuichi... blinked, rapid and low-lidded. Absent. He had a feeling in his chest, peculiarly, as if he was winded.

He hung his head and turned. _No point._ There had to be some corner he hadn't checked yet, surely; he picked one at random and set to march through the dark...

A tart little _heeh...!_ behind him. Shuichi shut his eyes.

"...Aaaaaw, I _knew_ even you wouldn't be that mean!" Shuichi's eyes squeezed shut tighter - _I have never been_ mean _to you. You_ know _this._ "Thanks, buddy - you're the best!"

Kokichi took a big breath. A _fizz_ on one note - then another one higher - then...

...Nothing but a sound like the wind through a pipe. Shuichi turned around in a snap, whipping to look over his shoulder.

Kokichi stared again, with incredulity that, just like every other face he made, seemed about as organic and authentic as a comedy mask. He held the harmonica aloft in one hand; pointed at it with the other. "Don't blame _me_ for that -- " Riding an excess of breath. " -- my harmonica buddy here sabotaged me! See?"

He blew again - shutting his eyes into it. That hollow gusty sound again. A bigger, wheezier inhale begetting a harder, hollower blow.

Kokichi's eyes slipped half-open. The corners of his lips curved upward behind the harmonica; he giggled. " _Woooooow_... You think this _third chamber_ might be blocked, or something...?"

His inflection rode up at the end to a chirp. Almost a crack.

But Shuichi heard the emphasis.

Tumblers snapped and clicked into place in his head. In time with them, another snap to look over at the cabinets.

He stumbled over himself hustling to them; inspected the sticky notes again, a quick scan one by one and --

_...Hang on_. Another peruse, and re-peruse.

Only _one_ of them had a musical note drawn on it. One of the ones on the third cabinet. He pivoted to turn again. The forceps in the hand of the figure shone blue.

"I need the harmonica, Kokichi."

"Huh?" Kokichi cocked his head as Shuichi crossed back over his way. "What for?"

Shuichi winced. "Y -- you'll see, just... please let me have it for a second..."

"'Kayyyyyyy." A deep, deep smirk. "Just... be gentle with it, you got it?"

A light _clack_ as Kokichi plopped the instrument into Shuichi's upturned palm. Shuichi scrambled back to the counter - plucked the forceps out of the sculpture's hand, found it a loose hold _(intended to be taken, probably, good_ ), fished in the harmonica's chamber until foreign object clicked foreign object. Paused.

A grip and tug.

Out he fished some thin silvery strip. He narrowed his eyes; held it up to the purple lamp in the ceiling. It was toothed - grooved. A very, very thin key without a head.

...Drawer.

He looked back at Kokichi. Heaven knows if he knew why, as it wasn't a search for solidarity - no do you see this.

And he caught him smiling like he knew something, right before his eyes shut and he showed his bright-white teeth in giggling glee. "Ha- _wow_ , Shuichi, I sure hope you were careful getting those tweezers out of that statue! What if we need it later, too? You found a lighter, right? Like... what if the handle comes loose off of one of those drawers, and we gotta melt the figure down so we've got something sticky to reattach it with...?"

...Shuichi frowned. Thoughtfully.

In spite of himself, he made a mental note.

Closed his eyes and shook out his head to shuffle his thoughts back into the moment.

"Heh... Then again, that'd be a pretty stupid solution for a puzzle, wouldn't it? Maybe we should save the whole wax-and-lighter thing as a gift for Miu, instead... if we get out of here, anyway..."

\-- Shuichi flung a look back up at the clock.

9:51.

Nine minutes left.

He spared only a second to breathe - steady, pushing out Kokichi in favor of quiet. Paced determinedly to the drawers, kneeled, and _chuck_ ed the key into the lock. It turned.

Something yawned in his brain as he drew it open.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the r/FanFiction April Daily Prompt challenge. April 2nd: "I Can't Believe I'm Sitting In Jail With You Of All People".
> 
> Also, Shuichi does not in fact need to note down the wax thing, because Kokichi is simply dunking on That One _Silent Hill_ Puzzle.
> 
> Or is he.


End file.
